Way down in the Antarctic, studies reveals strange mutilations in several biotic species. When the European environmental group Greenpeace investigated, it traced the damage all the way back to paper and pulp factories in distant Canada.
These units were using a carcinogenic dioxine as a bleaching agent. This released organic pollutants that could never could merge with the environment and its toxic effects magnified with time.
A Swedish company was the first to react to these findings. The company, Sodra Cell, closed its bleaching unit and began producing what was called TEF (total effluent free) paper -- the first in the world to attain sustainability.
Its annual profits under the new arrangement stood at 10 to 14 per cent. Without the TEF solution, the company would have been making the kind of profits that Indian paper and pulp manufacturers record -- 100 to 250 per cent.
Not unexpectedly, the paper and pulp industry is one of India's major polluters together with newsprint, match, plywood and fibreboard manufacturers.
That is mostly why, today, India's forests cover just 12 per cent of total land area compared with 40 per cent a century ago. The ministry of environment and forests stipulates 33 per cent forest cover under its National Forest Policy of 1988.
Although there have not been any Antarctic-type findings yet, there is little doubt that Indian paper and pulp makers are as bad as their Canadian counterparts. There are 305 paper-board mills in India with an annual installed capacity of 3.0 million tonnes. One of the most water-intensive industries, the only treatment available to them is end-of-the-pipe measures to control volumes of waste water and reduce the pollutant load, rather than in-built pollution prevention measures.
In the long run, that degradation may force the industry to reform. The paper and pulp industry has been among the first to be exposed to international competition even as it struggles to cope with increasing domestic demand. With wood and bamboo in short supply, the alternative that is emerging is clear: to introduce resource-efficient technologies and maximise production.
Like paper and pulp manufacturers, chemicals, petrochemicals sugar, rayon and fertiliser companies and metal finishing companies have stayed high on the offender's list.
Most of their waste-disposal techniques are simple. They create lagoons into which they dump toxic elements. As the particulate matter settles, clear water rises up, but one rain could swamp the area with the overflowing lagoons spewing its filth into the surrounding areas.
Says D K Basu, chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the country's chief environmental regulatory authority, "The single-most critical factor for industrial pollution is the lack of sanitation facilities. There are scant efforts for waste water management and treatment and water-borne problems are increasing."
It is estimated that as much as 70 per cent of India's surface water is polluted. One of the most prominent examples of this in recent times is the Yamuna. The river is known to receive an estimated 500 million litres of untreated sewage everyday. To put this in perspective, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stipulates that at least 98 per cent of water samples from any given area must be free of coliform bacteria. The coliform count in the Yamuna stands at 7,500 per 100 millilitres upstream. By the time the river has passed through Delhi, the the coliform count stands at 24 million per 100 millilitres.
A government policy statement on pollution released in 1992 suggests that three-fourths of this waste water comes from municipal sources and accounts for half the total pollution load.
In most cases, water pollution control technologies are considered too expensive for companies to afford. The CPCB is hoping to help solve the problem with a tie-up with Sulabh International, to create traditional oxidation ponds using aquaculture and other methods.
In urban areas, the single biggest environmental problem is air pollution. Vehicular emissions and coal-based thermal power stations are the chief culprits. Of the vehicular polluters, two- and three-wheeler vehicles, which constitute 75 per cent of vehicular traffic, account for more than half the pollution. The average level of suspended particulate matter is double WHO standards in India's four metropolises. And Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi have the unenviable distinction of figuring in the list of the top ten most polluted cities of the world.
The internal combustion engine burns hydrocarbons, each one of which is carcinogenic. But no product or process changes have been effected in the industry to combat this problem, rues Dunu Roy of the Hazards Centre.
Thermal plants spew out 45 million metric tonnes of coal ash annually. Thermal stations have started using electrostatic precipitators to contain the exhaust of particulate matter. But this is really a process change rather than a pollution prevention measure. Particulate matter, instead of being emitted into the air, is filtered out and dumped into slurry ponds. Once the water dries up, the flyash is blown about in the wind.
Changes are happening, though not fast enough. Of the 68 thermal plants in the country, 28 thermal power plants have improved performance by switching to washed coal and setting up full-fledged ash management plants. The CPCB chairman recently inaugurated an ash plant at the Badarpur thermal power station, which will use the ash to make bricks.
Coal ash from thermal plants adds to the 90 million tonnes of untreated solid wastes that enter the Indian eco-system every year, apart from six lakh metric tonnes of hazardous waste. Iron and steel and non-ferrous metal industries are among the other major offenders.
Models of enviromentalism are emerging. Public sector Vizag steel plant is one model with its acres of planted greenery and in-built pollution control equipment. But it is still the exception. At the other end of the spectrum is Steel Authority of India's Rourkela steel plant which has converted the town into a Dickensian nightmare.
The low level of compliance in India is often contrasted with the cement industry, which is gearing up to be the world's second largest producer by 2000. "The maximum concentration of contemporary eco-friendly technology is perhaps in the cement industry," says A K Chatterjee of ACC, India's largest cement producer. Eighty-one of the 97 cement manufacturers in the country are known to have pollution control technology in place.
Dust collectors have been installed in a number of cement factories, which now also boast settling chambers, fabric filters, electrostatic precipitators and wet collectors.
No altruism here, it simply makes good financial sense to recover the fine dust particulates blown about from the quarrying stage to the final packing stage, because it is cement particles that are being released into the air. The dust is generated because of improper material handling, leaks from ducts and transfer points and open material stock piles.
Research and development has received a new impetus in recent times the world over, but India still argues for its limitations in terms of lack of resources. The larger, more high-profile, export-oriented companies have thought it worth their while to build up an environment-friendly image. The costs of pollution control, according to CPCB estimates, would not be more than four per cent of the total turnover. It is usually in the one-two per cent range and rarely exceeds four per cent.
The government has started tightening enforcement slightly. The chairman of the erstwhile technical advisory body has now been vested with powers to intervene directly if state pollution control boards fail to meet objectives.
This is expected to allow CPCB will now play a more proactive role, prefering to step in before a company is set up rather than treating a polluting unit.
